California Declaration of Domestic Partnership: Rights and Filing

A California Declaration of Domestic Partnership is a notarized form (DP-1) that you file with the Secretary of State to create a legal relationship that carries nearly all the same state-law rights and obligations as marriage. The filing fee is $33 for most couples, and the partnership is legally effective the day the Secretary of State receives the completed form. From that point on, California treats registered partners like spouses for property, inheritance, medical decisions, and state taxes. Federal law does not.

Who Can Register

California Family Code Section 297 sets the eligibility rules. Both partners must be at least 18, capable of giving informed consent, and share a common residence.¹ Sharing a residence does not require both names on the lease or deed, one partner can keep additional residences, and a temporary absence is fine so long as you intend to return.

Neither partner can be married to someone else or already registered in another partnership that has not been ended. Partners cannot be related by blood in any way that would prevent them from marrying under California law.¹ Since Senate Bill 30 took effect in 2020, registration is open to any couple over 18 regardless of gender.²

How to File the Declaration

Download Form DP-1 from the Secretary of State’s website.³ Both partners enter their full legal names, a shared mailing address, and dates of birth. Use blue or black ink. Names must match your government ID exactly, because the Secretary of State files what you submit.

The form has an optional name-change section. Either partner can take the other’s last name, revert to a birth name, hyphenate, or combine parts of both surnames into a new one. If the new name draws on a birth name that differs from your current legal name, attach a photocopy of your birth certificate, and sign the form using your pre-change name.³

Both partners must sign in front of a notary. The notary attaches a certificate of acknowledgment, and both signatures can appear on a single certificate or on separate ones. Wet signatures are required; electronic and digital signatures are not accepted.³ California caps notary acknowledgment fees at $15 per signature, so notarization typically runs $30 for the couple.

Send the original notarized form to the Secretary of State in Sacramento by mail, or bring it in person during business hours. Photocopies and scans are not accepted, and there is no online submission.³ The filing fee is $33 if both partners are under 62, or $10 if either partner is 62 or older. In-person filers who want same-day processing pay an extra $15 special handling fee.⁴

Your partnership is legally effective the day the Secretary of State receives the completed filing. After processing, the office mails back a Certificate of Registration along with a file-stamped copy of the declaration. Keep both. Employers, insurers, and agencies will ask for the certificate. Mail-in filings usually take a few weeks depending on office volume.

The Confidential Filing Option

Couples who want their registration kept off the public record can file Form DP-1A, the Confidential Declaration of Domestic Partnership, instead. Eligibility rules are the same as for the standard form.⁵ Only the registered partners can obtain copies later, either in person or through a notarized written request; anyone else needs a court order showing good cause.⁴

The trade-off is practical. If you expect to need certified copies often, for insurance enrollment or other transactions, the standard filing is easier to work with.

What Registration Gets You Under California Law

Family Code Section 297.5 gives registered partners the same rights, protections, benefits, obligations, and duties that California law puts on spouses, whether the source is a statute, a regulation, a court rule, or common law. The same applies to former partners and surviving partners.⁶

Community Property

California’s community property rules apply to registered partners. Assets acquired during the partnership are presumed to belong equally to both, while property owned before registration or received individually as a gift or inheritance remains separate.⁷ The community property estate ends when partners physically separate with the mutual intent to end the relationship permanently, when one partner dies, or when the couple moves out of California.

Inheritance

A surviving partner inherits the same way a surviving spouse would. If your partner dies without a will, you automatically receive all community property and a share of separate property that depends on whether children, parents, or siblings survived them. A will is not required to claim this, though having one avoids delay.

Medical Decisions and Hospital Visitation

Registered partners have automatic hospital visitation rights and the authority to make medical, legal, and financial decisions for an incapacitated partner, because Section 297.5 extends every spousal right into the domestic partnership context.⁶ Unmarried, unregistered couples have no such automatic authority; hospitals turn to blood relatives instead.

Parental Rights

Your rights and obligations toward a child of either partner mirror those of a spouse, covering custody, support, and decision-making. A partner can pursue stepparent adoption of the other’s child, creating a permanent legal parent-child relationship that survives if the partnership later ends.⁶

California Family Leave

Under the California Family Rights Act, eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to care for a domestic partner with a serious health condition. CFRA’s definition of family member expressly includes domestic partners and a domestic partner’s child.⁸

Where Federal Law Does Not Follow

The federal government does not treat registered domestic partnerships as marriages. That gap has real financial and legal consequences.

Income Taxes

Registered partners cannot file federal taxes jointly or as married filing separately. Each partner files individually as single or, if independently qualified, head of household.⁹ California, however, requires you to file your state return using a married/RDP status, either jointly or separately, which means combining income and deductions on the state return that were split on the federal returns.¹⁰ Community property adds another layer: the IRS requires each partner to report half of the couple’s total community income on their separate federal return.⁷ A tax professional who has handled RDP returns is worth the cost.

Employer Health Coverage

If your employer covers your domestic partner on its health plan, the fair market value of that coverage is treated as taxable income on your federal return. Married spouses are excluded from this tax; domestic partners are not, unless the partner qualifies as your federal tax dependent.¹¹ For many couples this adds several thousand dollars to taxable wages each year.

Federal Family Leave

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act defines spouse as a husband or wife recognized under state marriage law and excludes domestic partners.¹² California’s CFRA fills the gap for employees of California employers with 5 or more employees. If you work out of state for a non-California employer, you may have no protected leave to care for your partner.

Immigration

A domestic partnership does not let you sponsor your partner for a green card. Federal immigration law limits immediate-relative status to spouses, unmarried children under 21, and parents of adult U.S. citizens.¹³ Couples where immigration is a concern should consider marriage instead.

Social Security

Registered partners generally do not qualify for Social Security spousal or survivor benefits. The Social Security Administration has noted that some same-sex partners in non-marital legal relationships may qualify under certain circumstances and encourages those individuals to apply, but eligibility is not guaranteed.¹⁴

How to End a Domestic Partnership

California allows two routes out: an administrative termination filed with the Secretary of State, or a court-ordered dissolution. Which one applies depends on how long you have been registered and what you own.

Administrative Termination

You can file a Notice of Termination directly with the Secretary of State if all of the following are true:¹⁵

The partnership has lasted five years or less.
You have no children together, neither of you adopted a child during the partnership, and neither partner is pregnant.
Neither partner owns or leases real property, except for a rental lease that ends within a year of filing.
Total debts incurred during the partnership, excluding car loans, fall below the statutory threshold.
Community and separate property, excluding cars, each fall below the statutory limit.
Both partners sign the notice, agree on how to divide everything, waive spousal support, and confirm they want to end the partnership.

Termination takes effect six months after filing. During that waiting period, either partner can revoke it by filing a notice of revocation with the Secretary of State and sending a copy to the other partner.¹⁵

Court Dissolution

If you have been together more than five years, have children, own property, or cannot agree on terms, you go through a court dissolution. It works like a divorce and covers property division, support, and custody, with the same community property and spousal support rules courts apply to married couples.⁶ Couples who meet a simplified set of conditions may qualify for summary dissolution, a faster and less expensive court process. Community property must be worth less than $57,000, each partner’s separate property must be under $57,000, and combined debts excluding car loans must stay below $7,000; retirement accounts count toward the property totals.¹⁶

If your partner receives benefits through the partnership, health insurance being the most common, you are responsible for notifying the benefit provider once the partnership ends. Failing to do so can expose you to civil liability for benefits paid after the termination date.

1
City of San Diego. California Family Code Section 297
2
California Secretary of State. Domestic Partners Legislation
3
California Secretary of State. Declaration of Domestic Partnership – Form DP-1
4
California Secretary of State. Domestic Partners Registry – Forms and Fees
5
California Secretary of State. Confidential Declaration of Domestic Partnership – Form DP-1A
6
California Legislative Information. California Code Family Code 297-5
7
Internal Revenue Service. IRM 25.18.1 Basic Principles of Community Property Law
8
California Civil Rights Department. Expanded Family and Medical Leave in California
9
Internal Revenue Service. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions for Registered Domestic Partners and Individuals in Civil Unions
10
Franchise Tax Board. Registered Domestic Partner (RDP) Filing Status
11
Internal Revenue Service. Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits – Publication 15-B
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28L – Leave Under the Family and Medical Leave Act for Spouses Working for the Same Employer
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for Immediate Relatives of U.S. Citizen
14
Social Security Administration. Do I Qualify for Benefits as a Spouse if I Am in a Domestic Partnership?
15
California Legislative Information. California Family Code 299
16
California Courts. Find Out if You Qualify for Summary Dissolution